All four members of Led Zeppelin have agreed that “Kashmir” is one of their best musical achievements. John Paul Jones suggested that it showcases all of the elements that made up the Led Zeppelin sound.

Plant has stated that ‘Kashmir’ is the “definitive Led Zeppelin song”, and that it “was one of my favourite Zeppelin tracks because it possessed all the latent energy and power that wasn’t heavy metal. It was something else. It was the pride of Led Zeppelin.”

During a television interview in January 2008, he also named “Kashmir” as his first choice of all Led Zeppelin songs that he would perform, commenting “I’m most proud of that one”. Page has indicated he thinks that the song is one of the band’s best compositions.

Kashmir is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in 1975. It was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (with contributions from John Bonham) over a period of three years with lyrics dating to 1973. The song became a concert staple, being performed by the band at almost every concert since its release. The song runs for 8:28, a length that radio stations usually consider too long to play. However, upon its release, radio stations had no problem playing it, especially after seeing “Stairway to Heaven”, which was almost as long, do so well.

The lyrics were written by Plant in 1973 immediately after Led Zeppelin’s 1973 US Tour, in an area he called “the waste lands” of Southern Morocco, while driving from Goulimine to Tantan in the Sahara Desert. This was despite the fact that the song is named after Kashmir, a region in the northwestern part of the Himalayas.

As Plant explained to rock journalist Cameron Crowe:
“The whole inspiration came from the fact that the road went on and on and on. It was a single-track road which neatly cut through the desert. Two miles to the East and West were ridges of sandrock. It basically looked like you were driving down a channel, this dilapidated road and there was seemingly no end to it. ‘Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dreams…’ It’s one of my favourites…that, ‘All My Love’ and ‘In the Light’ and two or three others really were the finest moments. But ‘Kashmir’ in particular. It was so positive, lyrically.”

Plant also commented on the challenges he faced in writing lyrics for such a complex piece of music:

It was an amazing piece of music to write to, and an incredible challenge for me… Because of the time signature, the whole deal of the song is… not grandiose, but powerful: it required some kind of epithet, or abstract lyrical setting about the whole idea of life being an adventure and being a series of illuminated moments. But everything is not what you see. It was quite a task, ’cause I couldn’t sing it. It was like the song was bigger than me. It’s true: I was petrified, it’s true. It was painful; I was virtually in tears.

Robert Plant and road manager on a camel, Mumbai Beach 1972

In an interview he gave to William S. Burroughs in 1975, Page mentioned that at the time the song was composed, none of the band members had ever been to Kashmir.